UN chief urges rich nations 'not to lose one moment' in helping flood-hit Pakistan.

UNITED NATIONS -- Pakistan needs a 'massive inflow of financial resources' to help it cope with the devastation caused by the climate-induced floods, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday, as he appealed to wealthy countries 'not to lose one moment' in coming to the aid of the country.

'What is happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis, and the betrayal and injustice at the heart of it,' he told his annual pre-General Assembly press conference.

The 193-member Assembly's high-level debate in which many world leaders, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, are scheduled to participate, will begin on September 20.

The UN chief, who opened his remarks with his solidarity visit to Pakistan, said the scale of destruction was 'unimaginable' that he had never seen. Guterres, who is from Portugal, noted that the flooding covers an area three times the size of his homeland.

The UN, he said, was fully mobilized to support Pakistan. 'But', the secretary-general said, 'Pakistan needs a massive inflow of financial resources and my appeal to international financial institutions and to countries that have financial capacity is not to lose one moment in providing Pakistan with the financial resources that are necessary for the gigantic tasks that are front of us,' he added.

In typically uncompromising language, he lambasted the global response to the climate crisis as inadequate, unjust and, at its heart, a betrayal.

'Whether it's Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, small islands or Least Developed...